‘There is no real need to put up another premium class hotel in Yekaterinburg. The city is still experiencing a shortage of inexpensive two-star establishments, while the five-star hotels are forced to take up the niche of the four-star ones and reduce their prices. A high-class hotel will still enjoy some demand in one way or another, that’s true, but it will lure away the other hotels’ clients, since not many more tourists are coming to Yekaterinburg now than before,’ the Voznesenzkiy Hotel’s Advertising & Marketing Manager Evgeniya Isachenko told UrBC.

Nevertheless, the construction of a Radisson SAS is about to begin in Yekaterinburg. The forty-eight-storey building is to be located at the intersection of Malyshev St and Krasnoarmeyskaya St. The construction will probably be started this year by Atomstroycomplex and the Finnish SRV. In fact, Atomstroycomplex has already collaborated with this Finnish company before when the Park Inn Yekaterinburg Hotel was being put up. Once the construction process has been completed, the hotel will be handed over to Radisson chain.

‘The number of guests in our hotels is growing slowly but stably. Figures differ for different hotel types, as the inexpensive ones are naturally more popular than the costly ones. This is partly connected with the fact that many companies tried to cut down on their expenses by converting their business class hotels into economy class ones. On the whole, the situation on the market will probably look better by the end of this year than it was in 2009 but not as good as it was in 2008,’ Ms Isachenko said.